From SCBWI Winchester conference to the children's book fair in Montreuil, Paris

By Bridget Strevens

The buzz from SCBWI Winchester conference is still ringing in my head:  Debi Gliori's heartfelt keynote speech and workshop,  Eric Huang's enlightening explanation of Transmedia, hosted and reported on here by Nick Cross,  useful branding tips from author Justin Somper and PJ Norman of Author Profile, performance training from school visitor extraordinaire Steve Hartley, author-actor Mo O'Hara, and finally the best ever group book launch hosted by the inimitable  Lin Oliver co-founder of SCBWI.


Three days later I was on a (thankfully restful) train to Paris, preparing for more buzz at the Salon du Livre et de la Presse Jeunesse, the French national kids book fair.

Hilarious comic illustrator, author and cartoonist friend Sally Kindberg who is also published at Bloomsbury, came with me -  an ideal travel companion.
We lodged close to the fair thanks to another friend, the illustrious Doug Cushman, fellow author and illustrator at Hen & Ink.

When we arrived Doug was painting a watercolour of an owl in his Paris studio.

A couple of hours later Sally and I went to the grand opening of the French kids book fair.   

Sally took a pic of me in my spotty jacket holding a pile of bumpf about the fair. 
Over 300 children's publishers show their year's output and more, in stands across two huge floors of an industrial building in Montreuil, an eastern suburb of Paris.   
Over 150, 000 visitors brave the trip to look at and buy books and attend events for kids and publishing pros. 

I'll confess I blogged last year too about this mecca for illustrators, authors, kids and book lovers.  I just can't resist going on about it!
What is it about this particular children's book fair that stands out from any other?    

Aside from incredible standard of art in French kids books, and the daring formats and subjects, one big difference is that kids can attend, not just publishing pros.  

Babies to teens roll up in families or schools, often armed with a few euros of their own to spend.  They queue up to watch illustrators and authors sign their books.  

And there's a buzz around books which older kids notice.  Yes books are cool here!

Another feeling you get strongly here is real pride in the produce.  It speaks for itself. 

There's not so much glitzy corporate marketing and hard sell.   

Yet it's a fair that seems to help even the smallest publishers survive.   From the huge variety of books and inventive formats it seems they can afford to take risks and publish the books they love.   This year it was great to see Nobrow come from London who also take pride in publishing stand-out books.  

Sally loved this beaked tight rope walker on the wall of a publisher's stand.
Wish we had noted the book it was from - anyone know?

The opening night is not all about bribery with food and drink..

Little girl and appetizers at one send of the Tourbillon stand

wine and tasty canapés at the Bayard stand -
where there was a real buzz this year...

There is more than enough to entice children, parents, librarians and booksellers into buying mounds of books before Christmas...

A book of historical maps to make kids love maps forever

from publisher Rue du Monde 

Telling kids stories of  WW2

one shelf in the BD (comic / graphic novel) section

for teens, a newspaper-like fantasy in pictures

"What are swear words?" asks this article in a Bayard kid's magazine
(Not sure such graphic visuals would be tolerated in some other countries I can think of!)

 The day after I took Sally to my French publishers, Bayard.  They've moved to a huge modern building south of Paris in the suburb of Montrouge.  It's a long walk from the book publishing end to the magazine end of the building.  As we got to the offices of Belles Histoires and Tralalire,  I noticed a couple of old posters I'd done a while ago were up on the walls.

Notice the washing line of illustrations up in the Belles Histories / Tralalire offices!

And here is Sally again, with Marianne Vilcoq, an illustrator herself and the hard-working Belles Histoires art director - just before we took off.    

My only regret is I didn't have time to catch up with more friends in Paris.  
Still Sally and I had a hilarious meal at L'Atmosphère by the Canal St Martin, with some of the other Hen & Ink authors and illustrators,  all SCBWI members too,   Jeanne de Sainte Marie,  Sarah Towle,  Mina Witteman from Amsterdam, and a more recent SCBWI member, Jion Shebani whose illustrator portfolio had been judged the most promising just a few days before at the SCBWI Winchester conference.

Print Showcase Winners at the 2012 Conference

The Illustrator's Print Showcase introduced at Bright Horizons, the SCBWI Conference in Winchester this year was displayed both in the Conference venue and the Book Launch party at the Guildhall. Massive thanks to Anne-Marie, Loretta and the other organisers for the hard work of moving around the images. Three illustrations were voted the faculty and attendee favourites, here are the winning prints by Amber Hsu, Layn Marlow and Nicola Robinson!  

Amber Hsu Lady with Dogs

Layn Marlow Too Small For My Bed

Nicola Robinson Attack of the Killer Squid

SCBWI also had two portfolio winners - Best Professional Portfolio was won by Briony Stewart and Best Up and Coming Portfolio by Jion Sheibani.

Lastly, Jane Heinrichs won the best Promo Mailer competition with her pop up Frog Prince in a kissing booth.

Congratulations to all the artists!

A Picture Book in Graphic Format

By Gillian McClure

Zoe’s Boat will be launched this weekend at the SCBWI Mass Book Launch in Winchester.

In this picture book, I wanted to introduce the very young child to a graphic format while at the same time offering a good read-aloud text.    

Originally Zoe’s Boat was not in graphic format. Above, is a first draft in picture book format with just  two moments in time; Zoe and the Dog sitting on the river bank and then a close-up of them talking.

After that came this version which is in graphic format; five frames with speech bubbles and the text at the top . Some graphic stereotypes are also included: thought bubbles and a question mark.

Finally I arrive at this where there are no speech bubbles, just text frames with a story an adult can read aloud to the child, making Zoe’s Boat part picture book, part graphic novel.

In the finished spreads like the one above, the text frames were done with about 70% opacity so that they would recede on the page allowing the pictures to take precedence in the story telling process. The graphic layout of the frames vary in this book and hopefully develop the child’s ability to read pictures, navigate the page and follow a pictorial narrative sequence with the correct eye movement from left to right which will, ultimately, help with the process of learning to read. The arrangement of the images has to be logical and intelligible so in the first couple of spreads I ease the child into the graphic form using a straight forward layout: the child’s eye must move down the left hand side of the page, back up and across to the right-hand side of the page and finally down to the bottom of that page. The action in the frames needs to be easily understood by the child – here a simple head movement – Zoe and the Dog on the left- hand side looking this way and that as things pass by, then on the top right hand side Zoe and the Dog focussing on each other and below this, a close up, like a camera zooming in, when they find themselves in a situation where they're at odds with one another.

I’d hoped the emotional dilemma on the previous spread would catch the child’s attention enough to sustain the interest here on the left-hand page where the child needs to be able to read the body language of Zoe and the Dog in order to understand what they’re feeling, for there’s no clue in the text. Once the story has caught the child’s attention it must retain it, so on the right-hand page, I have Zoe unwrapping her boat – like unwrapping a present - knowing the child will be more interested in this than what the dog is doing or feeling. Like Zoe, ‘But Zoe doesn’t hear’, in these frames, the child probably won’t be paying much attention to the Dog either . 

I relied on Zoe’s ‘special things’ to further retain the child’s interest in the spread above. This seemed to work when I showed the book to a six year old girl who was particularly interested in all the ‘stuff’ shown here, along with the list in Zoe’s neat hand writing ( in contrast to the Dog’s hand writing on his list.)

    Meanwhile, there's a new arrangement of frames to further develop  the child’s reading-eye movement. It’s not too different from the previous two spreads; the bottom left-hand frame is simply split into three smaller ones that have to be read from left to right. On the next spread there will be another more complicated variation in the arrangement of frames…

Here, the left-hand page is the same as that of the previous spread but the right-hand page is introducing a new vertical movement for the child’s eye (down to the duck then back up to the Dog) before moving across to the two smaller frames on the far right which read from top to bottom.

Perhaps this spread is one of the more demanding pictorial sequences for the child to read correctly for the eye has to navigate from left to right three times down the page on the left-hand side before moving across to the single climatic frame on the right where the child can pause a moment and take in the Dog’s indignation and shock at being left behind.

Zoe’s Boat is a story with a lot of action and this lends itself to the graphic format. In this and  the following two spreads the flow of action in the pictures and the rhythm of the sea take over the dynamic of the story. Here the sea creates a rocking movement on the right-hand side in contrast to the static pier where the path abruptly ends.

And here, again, it’s the pictures rather than the text that create the dynamic of the page. The drama is unfolding in the images and the text is minimal. On the three wordless frames on the right-hand side, the child’s mind has to supply the words of the unfolding story. Having no words also accelerates the pace of the narrative and speeds up the page turn.

In fact, I could have omitted the text together from this spread but as I’d built into this book the voice of the adult reading aloud to the child I didn’t want to silence this voice altogether. For it’s the adult’s voice reading aloud to the child that makes Zoe’s Boat different from a comic or graphic novel where, in their paper form as opposed to their electronic form, there is never any actual sound.

Getting Near to the End....

By Lynne Chapman

Yesterday I was out doing a school visit in Nottingham, but for all the rest of last week, I have been working away on my Swap! artwork. On Wednesday morning I finished off the school room illustration I was half way through last time we met: 

Since Wednesday was a nasty, overcast day (hence the slightly dingy-looking photo), I pulled the blinds and set-to at my light box, tracing up the last two pages I've yet to do. Of course that doesn't include the cover artwork and the front endpapers (which you remember are different from the back ones on this book, which I already coloured, just before the first batch of artwork went off to Frankfurt). At last the end of the actual story is in sight though.

I decided to tackle the other 'school chaos' illustration next, as I could use the image above as reference. It's so tricky making sure the various kids remain constant across the different spreads - who has teeth showing, who has freckles, which child has which hair colour, which hairstyle, which hair slides... 

I got it finished by mid-afternoon yesterday. This is Sparky's favourite part of the school day: the lunch hour. The publisher asked me not to make the food too obviously English, so I gave them a choice of pasta or good old sausages and mash. I don't know if you can make the food out - the light was bad again, so it's a wee bit fuzzy:

Before the end of the day, I just had time to sort out all my gear, ready for my visit to Ambleside Primary School, where I had a whole day with a single Y3 class, which is quite unusual. We started with an illustration workshop in the morning, then used the images we created to weave stories for a creative writing workshop in the afternoon. Great fun!

The Fox the Crow and the Smelly Old Cheese

By Anna Violet

I've been experimenting with tie-dyeing for backgrounds and I thought I'd share some of my images from the Fox and Crow and Cheese Aesops Fable that I've reworked .  I like the atmostphere/drama the tie-dye textures can give. 

'Halloween Forest' process

By John Shelley

The awful secrets are revealed! Please check my blog to read how I created the artwork for my latest creepy picture book Halloween Forest, the evil planning, the pain, the dark horrors of it all....

Well, actually it's mainly about how I created the sketches and production of final artwork.

...and if the mood takes you, I've posted in Japanese as well. Yoroshiku!

Halloween Forest (text by Marion Dane Bauer) is published by Holiday House in the US. Amazon link is here.

John

Tokyo Exhibition

By John Shelley

I'm back in the UK now after spending the summer in Tokyo (some may remember I used to live there for over 20 years). It was very good to be back and the show was a great success. Part of the exhibition was the original artwork to my Jack and the Beanstalk book [Jack to Mame no Ki], which has just been released in Japan, but as these were not for sale, the gallery made a series of 2 very fine limited edition "Neograph" prints from the book.
Neographs are double printed: a light silk screen is run over high resolution giclée print, resulting in work that is virtually indistinguishable from the original.

Also, in addition to book artwork I filled the remainder of the wall space with small images developed from sketchbook ideas, most in black and white, the theory being that in these hard times small images could be sold at an affordable price within most people's budgets. Also small means they fit easily on compact Japanese apartment walls! Here are some of the small images, many were sold during the show, but a few are still available via the gallery online shop.

Red Town

Bird Tree

City Spiral

Tall Ship

Underground Town

These were a lot of fun to draw, being a step away from commissioned work and thus with more freedom of expression. In most cases I simply took an original sketchbook drawing, traced it off on a lightbox and coloured. The down side is that the redraw often loses the immediacy of the original sketch, but these worked pretty well.

I would love to develop some of these into picture books, but therein lies the pinch - the pictures stand alone at the moment and tell their own story. Associating them with a plot is always a challenge.

Getting back to Drawing: SketchCrawls

By Lynne Chapman

Lots of us illustrators don't really draw any more. We draw as part of our work, we might sketch as part of research for a book, or to create a character, but many illustrators haven't gone out with a sketchbook, just for the joy of it, since college. 


I rediscovered sketchbook drawing a few years ago and have never looked back. The fun and freedom of exploration and experimentation, of drawing for no other purpose than being in the moment, is exhilarating after years of drawing illustrations to commission.

I now run a group called SketchCrawl North, which has members from Sheffield, Hull, Manchester etc. We go out for day trips to various locations to share a love of drawing, and to inspire and learn from one another. The excellent film Mark Lomas has made, of our recent SketchCrawl at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, really captures the idea. Take a look:

Contact me if you fancy giving it a go with us. If you love drawing but are too far from us or from an existing group, try getting together with a couple of friends and starting your own SketchCrawl group. Here are some tips to get you started and help you organise a day.

Other things that might be of interest are my top tips on how to draw people in public places, and my film about my sketchbook work, on the film page of my website. Power to your pencils!

Creating the artwork for my new book

By Lynne Chapman

I'm a bit behind with my 'Swap! artwork, so no more time for filming: it been head-down-time this week.

This was my desk on Friday night. I have decided to treat myself to some bigger, bolder bits of artwork for the next few days, having focussed on vignettes for quite a few days now, which are so fiddly. The joy of these bigger, simpler images is that you cover vast areas of the paper really quickly, so get a great sense of achievement.

Of course, having blocked in the main areas, I still have to slow down and fill in all the detail, but at least I have the sensation of having got lots under my belt to start with.

I'm working on two at once like this when I can: it helps to speed things up when the images contain similar content. If you want to learn more about how I create my pastel artwork, take a look at my YouTube channel or the films page of my website. 

Filmed Demonstration: Creating a Picture Book Illustration in Pastels

By Lynne Chapman

From time to time, people have asked me if I could make a film demonstrating the pastel technique I use in my picture books. I wrote a step-by-step illustrated guide, talking through the creation of a cover illustration for an educational project, but it's taken a while to get round to an actual film.
John and I did done a couple of try-outs earlier in the year, with the how to draw a cat and how to draw a dragon films. We've learnt from those and this new film is tighter and more adventurous, showing me working on a real project in the studio.

It's the perfect time, while I am creating the artwork for my next book, Swap!: I wanted to show something 'real', rather then re-create artwork. John filmed me doing this piece, where Lucy, having enjoyed swapping places with her dog Sparky for the morning, starts to feel a bit bored:

Of course, the artwork took more than twice as long to do, what with all the messing about getting the lighting set up and working out the best way to talk through what I'm doing, and continually stopping and starting, but I'm really pleased with how it's come together, so it was well worth it. 

A big thanks to John, who did all the filming, as well as getting his head round all the technical editing stuff. If you enjoy it, please share it with your friends, so we can get the hit-count up a bit. Cheers!

Starting My New Picture Book Artwork!

By Lynne Chapman

I've finally had the go-ahead from my publisher on those last few redraws of the illustrations for my new picture book Swap!, so at last it's all go! I've only done about half my tracing-up, as it's such a tedious task, tracing all the line work onto my pink pastel paper on the light box. I have to do it in the dark too, despite the sunshine outside (groan), as the pastel paper is too thick to see through otherwise. 

It was great to get stuck into colour though. I started with the first spread of the book, not because I like to work through in the correct order, but because I had clear ideas about the colours things needed to be (pretty much pink, pink, pink), so it was a safe place to begin. 

It was also a comfortable way to find the main characters, as they are very large on the page. I  was imagining Lucy blond, but concerned that might not jump out of the page as much as brunette, especially as I am rather fond of soft, pastel coloured backgrounds (which we will drop in later, digitally).

I wasn't sure what colour to do Sparky. Black would be tricky for showing details, white a little boring, brown a bit dingy and dull... I wanted him to stand out from the backgrounds too, so I chose white with tan bits, to make it more interesting and colourful.

Watch this space for the rest of the artwork.